The present disclosure relates to a method for document production visualization (DPV), and more particularly, to a method for the animated viewing of 3D images of a document, either in a final state or at several stages of the production of the document, so as to provide a representative illustration of the document for use in proofing the document before production, as well as during and after production.
One aspect of document production visualization (DPV) is the virtual rendering of the document being described by standardized input. This virtual rendering has the advantage of being able to “see” and manipulate in 3D, the document before time and materials are committed to the production process. The document can be viewed, as it should appear in a final, finished form, or at any stage of a production process.
Tilman Buchner, Kinematics of 3D Folding Structures for Nanostructured Origami, (December 2003), describes that 3D Optical Systems Group at MIT investigates Nanostructured Origami™ 3D fabrication and assembly. The idea is to assemble complex hybrid (chemical or biological reactors, optical sensing, digital electronic logic, mechanical motion) systems in 3D by using exclusively 2D lithography technology. The 3D shape is obtained by folding the initial 2D membrane in a prescribed way, in a manner reminiscent of the Japanese art of origami (paper-folding). The patterning method (2D nanolithography, nanoimprinting and other techniques) as well as the actuation principle (Lorentz force actuation), which is responsible for initializing the folding process, have already been developed and established. The primary objective of this thesis is to determine the motions required to reach the goal (folded state) from the given initial state (unfolded). A combination of bodies, which are connected by joints, is used to describe the crease structure. As a result, the crease structure is represented in terms of a closed-loop Multi Body System (MBS) with the property that a change of relative motion at one location induces a change of relative motion elsewhere. To describe this system, a mathematical method, called screw calculus, is applied. By cascading several screws together, one can describe the motion of articulated rigid body systems, such as robotic manipulators and, in this case, origami.
Philip J. Mercurio, 3-D Hardcopy: The Hosoya Cube, (March-April 1991), describes that in print, 3-D structure can be communicated in a number of ways. A few well-chosen views of the structure can be presented, using perspective, shading, transparency, and other rendering techniques to enhance the photorealism of each view. Stereoscopic pairs of images can be printed, to further aid the perception of the 3-D structure. The choice of views is made by the researcher, who may unintentionally bias the viewer towards a particular perception of the structure. Another approach, commonly seen in architectural graphics, is to present top, side, and front views of the same structure. Here, the choice of views is taken out of the hands of the presenter, providing the viewer with a standard visual framework to aid perception of the structure. However, the 3-D relationships between the three views, printed side-by-side on one flat sheet of paper, still need to be mentally reconstructed by the viewer. The approach suggested here is to print six views of an object, the six faces of a cube encompassing the structure, in such a manner that a paper cube can easily be constructed from the printed sheets. The advantage of the paper cube is its physicality—the viewer can readily perceive the spatial relationships between parts of the structure as seen in the six views, because the relationships between the views is encoded by their positions on the surface of the cube. The paper cube is a cheap, portable, reproducible means of delivering some of the interactive advantages inherent in a 3-D workstation display.
Currently, there is interactive development environment for design and placement of tiered geometrical objects, such as objects used in pop-up card designs. Relations between objects are represented mathematically, allowing computerized modeling and enforcement of design constraints. For example, in the context of pop-up cards, a card that cannot close will not be allowed. A dependency hierarchy is used to track different objects of a card. Card objects are instantiated as related to other card objects so that changes to one card object can be appropriately propagated to related objects. If all card objects are defined with respect to a base card, an entire card design can be animated by only adjusting, for example, “opening” and “closing,” the base card. A graphical interface provides drag-and-drop and manual forms of placing card parts. For drag-and-drop, design constraints can be used to automatically determine proper positioning of card pieces. Graphics can be associated with card parts, and such graphics are automatically adjusted, for example, adjusting perspective for proper viewing of the image on a particular card piece.
In addition, there are also methods and systems for computer-aided design and more particularly computer-aided design of sheet parts. The methods include defining a feature in a definition view based on a specification defined by a user and generating the feature in the definition view. The alternative view is then updated. This updating includes analyzing the defined feature to determine if it can be made available to an alternative view, and representing the defined feature in the alternative view. The definition view and the alternative view include a folded view and an unfolded view.
Further, there are systems and methods for pre-print visualization of a job to be printed are described. The methods include submitting the content of the printing job, and associated printing environment data, in order to create a virtual rendering of the job in 3D on a user interface. In one embodiment, the rendering may be a low-resolution rendering and in another embodiment or later step, the virtual rendering would employ print-quality representations of content. The virtual rendering further allows a user to observe job-specific aspects and change a point of view relative to the rendering, including selecting and viewing individual pages of the print job. The methods and systems may be employed to facilitate obtaining user approval for production of the print job before forwarding the job for production.
However, viewing of folding of a 3D object that represents two faces of a document is currently problematic.
In 3D modeling, objects that make up faces of a document are defined by vertices. These vertices are manipulated to give an appearance to a user that the document is being folded. However, an act of manipulating these vertices to simulate a fold operation can easily allow the faces to appear to cross or intersect with one another, producing an unrealistic folding operation. The difficulty in performing this folding operation is to keep two independent 3D objects that represent two sides of the document from intersecting or becoming too close to one another and introducing unrealistic folding conditions or artifacts.
For example, with reference to FIGS. 3-6, the edge of a fold 202 on an inner-side page object 204 may pierce through an outer-side page object 206 at certain angles of folding unless corrective action is taken. Also, points 208 and 212 of inner-side page object 204 may pierce through points 210 and 214 of outer-side page object 206 unless corrective action is taken. Also, if the page objects are too close together while in a semi-parallel state, a computer's graphics card can have trouble determining which face is nearer a viewer, potentially causing random switching between the two faces until they are moved further apart (that is, a Z-buffer problem in computer graphics).